


Survivor Mentality

by paranormalcy



Category: Tomb Raider (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Mental Health Issues, One Shot, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-29
Updated: 2016-09-29
Packaged: 2018-08-18 10:59:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8159801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paranormalcy/pseuds/paranormalcy
Summary: Lara Croft is trying to locate the prophet's tomb but with a whole host of symptoms she's ignoring it won't be as simple as she wants it to be.





	

**Author's Note:**

> When IGN released the video of the first 27 minutes of Rise of the Tomb Raider last year I was fascinated and a little horrified by Lara's apartment wall, I started writing this and a year later I'm still happy with how it turned out so I figured I'd share it.

Her shaking fingers skimmed across the page, words blurring together turning strings of sentences into meaningless lines. "Dammit." She breathed, looking up from the page, she caught a glimpse of the time on the laptop screen. Five A.M.

"Shit." She shook her head and stared back at the page. There had to be something she was missing. She had to find it, she wouldn't sleep until she'd found it. She needed _this_ more.

Reading through the pages of useless information, wading through a lake of pointless facts, dates, and locations. Names and faces she didn't care about. Her eyes closed involuntarily, sleep trying to drag her away from the research. "No, no, no." She sighed, her hands clenching into fists in frustration.

She was never going to get anywhere this tired. She knew that. But another night spent tossing and turning, nightmares in her head that raised even more questions without answers... she couldn't face it.

She stood, pacing back and forth behind her chair, then she turned and walked away, over to the window, then back to her desk, she rubbed at her eyes, staring at the wall in front of her. Newspaper articles, highlighted documents, post-it notes, mixed in with the photos of the people she cared about.

She focused on one. A headline. 'Mysterious Suicide On The Tube.'

 _Trinity_...

She grabbed the block of post-its and a pen, scribbling down a quick note, ' _keep searching_ ', she stuck it on the wall. Then stood back, worrying her lip between her teeth.

~

The door rattled and she was on her feet, her hand instinctively twitching towards her hip, towards the gun that wasn't there. She would have cursed if she wasn't so afraid of being heard.

 _Trinity_.

She quickly and quietly crossed the room, grabbing her ice axe as she moved, her back hit the wall by the door, the axe raised ready to strike. The door opened and she swung. There was a cry, one that sounded so familiar. He'd blocked the hit.

"Lara, it's me!"

The axe blurred, the red shape slipping from her grasp and clattering to the ground as her hands came up to her mouth, shaking with the rest of her body, "oh god, Jonah, I'm so sorry."

"What happened?" he asked, "are you okay? You're shaking."

"I just-"

"You look like you haven't slept in weeks."

She hesitated then shook her head, "every time I try my mind conjures up these... _horrible_ images, Jonah, I- I don't want to see them anymore."

"Come on," he bent and scooped up the axe, setting it against the boxes by the door, then put a hand on her arm, guiding her into the apartment as he closed the door behind him. "You've lost weight, little bird, let me make you dinner."

"Food." Lara realized. "I forgot about food."

Jonah chuckled, "always so wrapped up in your work." He set paper bags down on the counter, Lara watched as he unpacked the items he'd picked up for her.

"Go have a lie down," he insisted, "I'll call you when it's ready."

She hesitated for a moment, lingering, then nodded, "alright." She turned to leave, then turned back, "Jonah?"

He looked at her over his shoulder, "thank you," she breathed.

His lips twitched up, "anytime."

~

He hated just walking into Lara's apartment, but since she so often fell asleep while she was working she'd given him permission. And she needed him, whether she liked to admit it or not. Especially since Sam...

The door opened and he slipped inside, "Lara?"

There was no response and for a moment his heart rate picked up. "Lara?" He took a few steps forward, the door shutting behind him. Then he noticed the sleeping form on the sofa. He smiled.

He moved quietly as he crossed the room and picked up the blanket which had been carelessly slung over the sofa back, gently draping it over her. He moved to the fridge, having earlier insisted on making her dinner that night. She'd tried to argue it wasn't necessary but he just gave his usual excuse; "you're on my way home from work and we have left over ingredients that'll go bad if we don't use them."

He was part way through making a fantastic beef stew when she started mumbling.

"Keep searching." He looked over at her and shook his head, smiling fondly.

" _Trinity_." His forehead creased in worry as he watched her.

"Trinity?" he breathed, turning back to the stew on the stove.

"Must stop them," his head snapped round to watch as she flipped over on the sofa, aggressively lashing out in her sleep before settling back down, "must..." she trailed off.

"What the hell have you gotten yourself into, Lara?" he breathed, his attention once again being turned back to dinner.

~

Words blurred as tears spilled down her cheeks, her hands came up and wiped at her eyes, "goddammit, there has to be _something_!"

She stared at the page; the words meant nothing. Nothing she needed anyway. Maybe another day, another myth, another truth to be found. But not _today_. Today they were nonsense.

She hit play on the recorder, listening to the words again. She'd heard them so many times she could recite them from memory. She stood and started pacing, back and forth in front of her desk, listening intently.

" _It was said the prophet's tomb was hidden in the cliffs above one of the forgotten cities, legend speaks of an oasis where the prophet was laid to rest._ "

"An oasis," she repeated, "the prophet's tomb."

" _The order of Trinity pursued the prophet and his people relentlessly until finally confronting them in their hidden oasis._ "

She sighed. Once again grabbing her post-it notes and pen. ' _Keep searching._ ' She stuck it on the wall.

~

As Lara ate the sandwich Jonah had prepared for her she stared up at the wall behind her desk reading and rereading all the articles, her eyes skimming the maps. Every time she felt herself start to lose hope she'd look at one of her post-its.

_Keep searching._

_Connect the dots, Lara!_

"I think I'm finally getting somewhere, Jonah," she said.

"I'm sure you are, little bird," he said, putting his hands on her shoulders, he spent a few silent moments looking at the research plastering the wall. None of it made sense to him, in fact, if you asked him he'd have said it looked more like the ramblings of a mad woman. He was concerned about her; he knew she hadn't told her therapist about the wall, about the post-its and the prophet. It wasn't healthy, one look at the wall and he could see that. Something was wrong. Something was really wrong and she couldn't see it.

"I think..." she lunged forward, the plate being shoved onto the desk as she stood. Jonah smiled, moving out of her way as she starting pulling down papers and moving them. Reading aloud random pieces of information.

_Prophet's tomb. Cliffs above a hidden oasis._

"I think I've got it!" There was a spark of excitement in her voice he hadn't heard in months.

He nodded slowly, crossing his arms over his chest, a proud smile forming. "I hope so." He took a few steps back and perched on the arm of the sofa, watching as she started to rearrange the wall. She'd figured it out.

~

As she pinned the map to the wall she finally began to feel a sense of self again. Syria. It _had_ to be in Syria. All of the evidence, everything she'd gathered, every sleepless night spent trawling through research... all of it pointed to Syria.

She'd done it.

She'd _found_ it.

The Prophet's tomb was in Syria. _It's in Syria!_

The alarm on her phone startled her out of her excited daze, she picked it up off the desk and glanced at the screen, reading the text it was displaying to her quickly.

"Dammit!"

She was going to be late to her therapist's appointment. She shoved her phone into her pocket and glanced out of the window; it was raining, as was typical in London. She rushed to grab her jacket, retrieved her door keys, hit the light switch, and was about to walk out of the apartment when she remembered-

 _Laptop_.

She turned and ran back to her desk, quickly logging out to the password screen.

"Just in case," she breathed, eyeing the word 'Trinity' sprawled across the wall. She took a few steps backwards then turned and jogged back across the room as she pulled her grey hood up. She headed out of the door and locked it behind her.

**Author's Note:**

> This fits into Rise of the Tomb Raider before the therapist announcement trailer and the first London flashback. I assume since Lara is dressed the same in both the announcement and the flashback that is where she is returning to her apartment from.


End file.
